Re: regional socials: likes & dislikes
 

1) Should a regional host a social event for the teams on Friday evening or not? Is it good for the teams, do teams want to have a social, etc?

Chesapeake has always improvised. There've been many collective informal "socials" where teams would do things around Annapolis together. My second year (and first year attending regionals), there were three improvised ones---a group went to Medeival Times at Arundel Mills, another went to the Annapolis Mall, while others went to other places. But there should be a social.


2) Should the team social be held at the same venue as the actual matches or not?

Not really. The real "Nap-town" has so much to do beyond what Hollywood portrays it as (note: "Annapolis" was filmed in Philly). If there were a dance (which never seems to be)

3) One thought is to host a social on Friday evening directly after the pits shut down and then end no later than 9pm.....like it or not?

I like the Friday idea, but it has to be longer! We've got to do it late into the night yo! Multiple events until 1-2:00 AM! After all, the more social time the better the connection--at least that's always how I felt about it. Who knows, you may go to college with them some day (as I found out now with a couple 007 members in my dorm). If it were Saturday, we could also do that, but I remember from a dinner that a number of teams started heading back like around 8:00 or 9:00 PM.

4) What sort of food would you expect at a team social (free, paid-for, styles, etc?)

I'd prefer to pay for my food because the food they give you at regionals (box-lunches) sucks: especially when the cafe is right there.

But as for food choices: Burgers, Dogs of varieties (all-beef for meat 'dogs), Pizza, Maryland Crabs, Fajitas, and Nachos and you'll have yourself a feast! (I had to three up BRES--we had an awesome crab feast three weeks ago.)


5) What sort of entertainment would you like to see at a team social? Examples might be "human-player" games, arcade-style games, karaoke, dancing, LAN-party games, true "Disney-style" entertainment.

The LAN-party games (especially games in the form of Mario Kart and Mario Party and Super Smash Bros.), dancing, kareoke, arcade games, and even pool, air hockey, foosball, bowling, comedy and live music!

But to top that off: PRIZES!!! PRIZES of all sorts: gift certificates, iTunes gift cards, concert tix, computers, software packages (ProEngineer, Autodesk Inventor among others), speaker systems, T-shirts, shopping sprees, TVs, cars, and all sorts of other stuff donated by the sponsors and local businesses.

Remember: Everybody <3's free T-shirts! If you don't like 'em now, appreciate them when you get to college! You'll get so many that you'll form your wardrobe entirely from it. (I have an engineering friend who does that.)

Re: regional socials: likes & dislikes
 

i loved the regional party for the VCU regional .. karioke, DDR , live band guy , food , GIRLS ( sry i didnt know many girls were into robotics) , ohh it was at the science museam soo there was this like rotating stripper pole thing .. ( its some science thing) , i just wish it was longer the party that is

Re: regional socials: likes & dislikes
 

ok the stripper pole thing was some kinda momentum thing that spun with a person on it and the closer or farter away u were determined how fast you spun.

Re: regional socials: likes & dislikes
 

I really liked VCU's regional becuase of the interesting museum and the live singing.
However, Maybe I am the only one, but I would really like a saturday night social. I just think it would be more fun. Friday night I know that I am kinda stressed out so it isn't as much fun for me, but still is fun nonetheless. Also, just leaving after awards to go home seems kinda depressing. Maybe that is just me

I do not think that the social should be held at the same venue as the regional. A change of scenory is always nice

A social ending at 9 wouldnt be as fun. I mean yes the socials are fun, going to a hotel to sleep right at 9 wouldnt be very fun.

For food, anything free is good. I really like what VCU had to offer these past couple years.

Entertainment...
I think Peachtree has it good at Jillians (think dave and busters, or a grown up version of chuck-e-cheese), however, you have to pay to play. However, it was in a mall, so if you had no money, you could check the mall out. I liked Purude becuase it was just a nice large gym and everyone had something to do it seemed.

Re: regional socials: likes & dislikes
 

I'm so glad someone created this thread. I'm trying to figure out much of the same things.

I'm curious how FIRSTers would feel about the following idea: I have a friend that's a pro comedian/magician (also a Waterloo Eng Alum). He's really good at it and it's a fun show to watch (get likes volunteers too). Do you think that would be a good thing to have with say an arcade, food.. and possibly something else?

(this is all tossing around ideas as I don't know my budget yet)

Re: regional socials: likes & dislikes
 

You have to have dodgeball! It will be a huge hit.

Re: regional socials: likes & dislikes
 

Because of the gamepieces, 2006 was a great season for dodgeball. I heard it was especially good at IRI -- too bad I couldn't stay.

Probably, this year's gamepieces will enable another entertaining social activity. Maybe frisbees?

With softballs for gamepieces, the FVC crowd can just bring their mitts and start a game of catch (out beyond the parking lot, please).

Re: regional socials: likes & dislikes
 

1) Of the days, I think Friday is the best option. Teams have Thursday evening to shake down any robot issues, and my experience is that many teams do not stay over the night after the competition ends.

2) The attraction of a social for me was as a pace-changer, so I'm all in favor of holding a social off-site, be it a team-run social in a rented out hotel's hospitality room, or in a local Science Museum.

3) My opinion is that 10:30-11:00 is a good time to close up the social.

4) I'd expect a team-run social to have access to food (Burger King, Krispy Kreme, etc... down the street), but for a FIRST organized social, I think a free buffet is in order.

5) Entertainment-wise, I think the main purpose of the social is to socialize; the secondary purpose is to eat food, and the tertiary purpose is to enjoy the activities. Entertainment is nice, but I'd rather the money be put toward the buffet.
A LAN-party has been mentioned quite a bit in this thread (7 times) though, and while I'd prefer a DJ, I can see how a massive Halo 2 tournament could compete with that. Why not ask your regional event supervisors if they could set a room aside for a LAN party, and then have the party be BYOC (Bring your own computer)? If you had enough people interested, I don't see why it would be an issue (except maybe for power requirements depending on the size of the party).

So what does it come down to? Quoting Greg Marra here, "fun is funner than no fun." So no matter what, try to have fun.

Re: regional socials: likes & dislikes
 

Thanks to everyone for their inputs on the "ideal" team social.....This is why the CD forum works soooo well! Judy's idea about the magician/comedian is EXACTLY the type of brainstorming we all need to do.

The Finger Lakes Regional committee is beginning to make plans for hosting an inter-team social event at the March 2007 FLR and getting input from all of you on CD has been invaluable in planning the social....Keep the ideas coming!

The RaChaCha Ruckus committee did host dodgeball at the intermission of the off-season event held a couple of weeks ago. It was hilarious and a lot of fun.

Even if your team social event is not held in the same venue as the playing field, or if the 2007 game somehow precludes using the field for "fun" events, then think about doing atheletic events such as volleyball and dodgeball at some nearby facility...

The 2007 Finger Lakes Regional is held on the campus of the Rochester Institute of Technology, so there are lots of other buildings in which to host a team social....except the swimming pool (safety issues). See y'all there!

Re: regional socials: likes & dislikes
 

When the UTC Connecticut Regional was at the meadowlands (a big concert venue) there was a comdedian act followed by a magic show. The year before the same hypnotist who was at nationals also performed there.

I really like the idea of having some sort of performer to entertain the crowd, but at the same time I wonder how that really allows the teams to "socialize". I like the socials in Philadelphia because they have people walking around to entertain, but its much more of a "social environment" with just a lot of big space and food. I really like the idea of having social events at these competitions, it allows us to put the stress of the competetive aspect of FIRST behind us for a few hours and gives us a chance to make new friends.

Also, I like the idea of bringing the social away from the venue, just for a little change of environment. But it does take a lot of careful consideration as to how to get there, will it be big enough, etc.

I also like the idea of having separate friendly competitions during the social events. Perhaps just silly games like dodgeball or relay races or stuff like that. But coming from a teenagers perspective, I think we'd all be happy with just some time to talk and some food :)

Re: regional socials: likes & dislikes
 

That's why I was thinking maybe of having him do a show or two over the course of the night, so you'd have to option of doing other things during/instead/etc. Plus, as far as I know, a lot of the organizers are gunning for renting out the arcade again (which has an area for LAN gaming). I always find it interesting that everyone is so up for that. I was never really one for going out to play on my computer.. to each his own. Maybe I'm just getting old.